¹¹ For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, ^(A)what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

¹² and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. ^(A)Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(B)to the place that I have prepared for it. ^13 (C)Because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule.” ¹⁴ So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.